Boss GT-3

Getting a good sound is really easy...once you figure out what you're doing. Learning the in's and outs is tough, but the pay-off is huge!!! Editing is pretty easy when you get the changes wired, but if you ddon't know what you're doing, changing on the fly could get you lost. You really need to know what it is you want to do, or you could spend days looking. The Harmonist is hard as hell to program, and takes forever to change. It sounds really good if you can do it, though.

I use the GT-3 with my Randall full-stack(straight and slant 4x12 cabs) and 120-watt head, or my 50-watt Crate Bass amp (just to be quiet at home). I use my Paul Reed Smith Standard-24, usually with the first or second bridge pick-up for both rhythm and lead tones. Some of the heavy distortions get really loud and feed back, but the limiter can handle that if you use it right. The effects are usually great- I, as of yet, have had no problem with the pedal except for me programming it retarded. I haven't tried to imitate anyone's sound, but I bet it could be done. The pre-programmed "Satch tone" is an excellent distortion. The telecaster effects are very stong, too. I think some of the synths are a little weak, but I don't use them, so I don't care too much. I'm not into trippy sounds, so I leave a lot of the weird patches alone. I like a little compression (which isn't too great on this)and lots of different chorus's. This pedal has a ton of programmable chorus that is great, and totally editable by itself or with other effects. The reverb is really good, too.I can't comment on the amp modeling, because i don't have anything to compare it to. I think it is probably really good, though.

This pedal has really strong metal chassis. The digitech peadals are weak in this area- I don't think they can withstand any real wear and tear I don't really like floor processors for a gig, but this thing kicks ass. I've knocked it all over, and it still works. For a really cheap price, I could even replace it easily if I had to. Most of my playing is really clean so if it busted I could run straight through my amp. However, I don't think it would. I wouldn't recommend using the expression pedal too much, though, because it feels weak. Just get a real wah and volume pedal- they are good investments.

I haven't ever dealt with customer repair, I can't tell you about this part. The pedal hasn't ever needed work, so I don't know.

I play a lot of rock and blues and Christian worship music. I run right through my full stack with no effects for blues, but I get great rock distortions and trippy effects from the GT-3. I've been playing for two years, but don't let that fool you. I'm a trained classical guitarist, and know what I'm doing (for a teenager). I play ni local shows, and at church, and the pedal is totally reliable all the time. I'd probably get another one if it was lost or stolen, but I might buy another floor processor just to try something different. This pedal is sooo cool once you get it figured out. It's harder than most floor boards to use, but there are more effects and more adjustable parameters than anything else. I checked everything out_all the big Digitechs- RP-21, 20, 14D, 2000, KorgAX1000, line 6 POD, Johnson J-station. I think this one is the best I've used. It's tougher, and much higher in quality than the others. I wish the display screen had a digital diagram for the equalizer, and that the expression pedal felt more reliable under my foot. Sometimes I think it is going to snap. It won't, but that's how it feels. I highly recommend this pedal to any and everyone interested in good, high quality, inexpensive effects. Alng with tfree or four smaller stompboxes (tuner, octave, volume and wah) to control every possible parameter, you have yourself a studio worthy set-up. The MIDI capability is a plsu, although my computer programs aren't set up for it yet. That should be really cool.

I like the old days of spinning a knob here and there to dial in certain parameters but, with this much packed into a box, that would make for an awful lot of knobs. After a bit of getting used to, I can change things on the fly pretty fast and everything is real consistent.

I love the sound of this unit. I'm running the melody side of a Chapman Stick through it. The instrument itself sounds wonderful as is so I had to be real careful to select a unit that would enhance, not detract. I'll be adding a second GT-3 to process the bass side.

The unit is not that old so I guess this one is a bit hard to call but it's sure built durably enough. Like any other Boss product, it'll probably out last me.

I play a Chapman Stick through this unit. The style of music ranges from rock to funk to progressive (although not metal). The quality has been outstanding and it's worked very well for everything I want to do. Once I get the twins setup, it'll be even better.

Once I read the manual it was easy to program and edit patches,but I must say the levels on almost everything have to be tweaked so the peaks and valleys match up.

I play a les paul and a schecter a-1 through my gt-3 then into a marshall jmp-1 preamp into a 5150 head into a blue voodoo 4x12 cabinet although lately I've been going from the gt-3 into the 5150.
I tune to a b flat and use heavy guage strings (13-65's) and tons of distortion.The main uses for my gt-3 are the tuner, noise suppressor
and the volume pedal-all of which sound and work great except for the volume pedal.It seems to have a breaking point and doesn't work well for subtle swells that are slow but if you just use it for on/off type use it works fine. The noise suppressor is killer, I can let go of my strings at full volume and it makes no sound or feedback unless I want it too.I set the threshold high and the release low and it does an excellent job-I highly reccommend a boss noise suppressor to anyone who plays any kind of metal!Just remember to run it first in your chain of effects if you're using a pedal, if you're using the gt-3 though program it into a patch that has nothing but the noise suppressor and maybe the foot volume controller thats what seems to work best.Most of the effects sound good but like I said the levels need to be tweaked to your liking.I like the space/echo effects but they sound really harsh and trebly-once again try adjusting levels
and the eq.I also use the sub eq for a slight mid boost to get rid of some of the "mud" that comes with tuning low with lots of distortion.I don't like the phaser/flanger effects they sound boring and plain, pedals are better.I play stuff like slipknot, mudvayne
soulfly and sepultura and my rig works really well for me.but, i'm thinking of getting some pedals for flange/phase effects and just using the gt-3 for the tuner,noise suppressor and volume pedal.

I play live with the gt-3 and abuse the hell out of it, my singer threw water all over it at our last show and it still works fine(although I was pissed)it gets kicked around alot by me and our bass player and comes back for more-it's a boss, built like a tank!I use it without a back up although a back up would be nice in case the memory battery ever failed.Write everything down in case this ever happens cuz reprogramming the whole thing would suck!

Never dealt with Roland and hopefully I never will, I've recorded twice with it and practice every day with it as well as play live all the time and in the 6 months I've owned it I've had no problems.

I play modern metal and the gt-3 is a good match for this style of music but I'm still gonna buy other effects pedals for flange and
phasing effects it lacks in those departments.I've been playing for 14 years and right now I'm pretty happy with my sound, although I'd
like to get a VHT head or a Mesa/Boogie triple rectifier in the future to run in stereo with my 5150.If it were lost or stolen I'd buy another after I beat the crap out of whoever lost or stole it!

After dealing with several different effect units over the years (Digitech, Alesis, Zoom) the GT-3 falls into the so-so. Do yourself a favor and check out all the info you can find on the unit. It comes with a typical Roland manual which makes you feel like you are speaking Tagalog in France.

Yeah, I know everybody else hears noise or can't get the sound thick enough or can't get that elusive 1958 Plexi sound (or whatever). That doesn't mean it isn't there, it just means you need to tweak the sounds a little. I have gotten mine to ALMOST perfectly sound like what I might need for tracking (everything from an SRV style blackface Twin to a Randall solid state black metal grind). If you can't get the sound you want out of it, try bringing global hi eq down 4 db and run the output into an ART tube MP pre or a Tubeworks blue tube.

Metal Metal Metal RULEZ!!! Don't ever buy plastic effects

I've been doing stoner electronic and nothing I've ever used has sounded this good! Throughout my 12 yrs of playing I've tried everything and this box 'does it' for me. I wouldn't use the synth live but it's great for recording, and for those of you who don't like the tracking - PLAY CLEANER!! (just kidding - try running a mild overdrive BEFORE the synth and 160bpm 16ths are no prob)

The GT-3 can be intimidating when you first plug into it, but with a little time and some reading in the user manual, no problems. http://members.tripod.com/bossgt3/ is a good site. Check out the Supplemental user manual. Everything is pretty straight forward, although editing can be time consuming.

I'm playing a Amer. Stand Strat directly into the GT-3 and running straight into a Church PA system (church seats approx. 1000). I'm running back to my amp from the direct box so I can control my own monitor. I love this effects pedal. I can get a good "acoustic sound" out of my Strat. Not an acoustic guitar out of it, but and acoustic sound. My acoustic-electric Yamaha sounds really good through the GT-3 with some chorus/delay and EQing.

You can get basically every sound you could want. I've read in these reviews that the distortions suck, but... Tweaking is involved. Most of the presets have to be redone/thrownout. Reverb and delay are very good. The unit, overall, is very quiet. Heavy distortions can be noisy, but that's the way it's supposed to be. Wah is lacking, but I haven't had time to tweak it. I usually play with a Vox Wah, and can't quite get the sound I want. This unit also has some wacky sound -effects. You can get some string/pad/space sounds. I might have some use for these, but the church band also has two keyboard players who handle that stuff... Most guitarists aren't going to have any practical use for these, but they're fun to play with. I've only had it for about two weeks and haven't had a lot of time to explore all the possibilites.

It's built to last. All-Metal chasis. No backup.

Only had it for about 2 weeks. No problems so far...

I play in a church that does a little (very little) southern gospel, funk, pop/rock. I also play blues, rock, acoustic (Third Day, Delirious). The GT-3 lets me get all the sounds I want and more. I would definitely get another one if I lost it. I had a Zoom 505 before (crap), I also own a Ibanez Tubescreamer TS-9, and a Vox Wah-Wah. I don't use any of them anymore, except the vox occasionally (I'm hoping to tweak the settings on the GT-3 and do away with the Vox as well). I just love playing through it. The sound I get out of it gives me goose-bumps. LOVE IT!!

I found the GT-3 to be quite easy to use. You can do some surface quick editing with the EZ Edit function, although with some of the patches you would probably want to go into the full editing section. I feel this unit has a rather short learning curve myself. Some of the editing seemed a little tedious at first but after reading the manual thoroughly one time it was really easy to pick up. One of the best options of the GT-3 is that the pedals can be assigned to control individual patches or can be turned into effects pedals within a patch at the touch of a button. If you set it up right you can run through four totally different sounding patches with a 7 pedal effects string for each in a matter of seconds. You can cycle through more than four of course but when you're stomping around on stage time is of the essence right? The only questionable aspect of this box is that you better know what you're doing when using the full edit option. It's not hard to use, but when you first start playing around with it it is pretty easy to get some totally useless sounds. Outside of this though, it's really quite user friendly. The manual takes time to explain all of the effects and how they interact too--for those novices out there.

I am using a Gibson Les Paul Studio and some crappy Yamaha strat knock-off through a pair of Carvin SX-200's ran in stereo. I have found that the GT-3 is actually reasonably quiet. At least quieter than I expected. These amps are really clean so I basically use them as power amps for the GT-3(you can choose the bias for speaker configurations in the utility function). I run my guitar into (usually a BBE 482 and then into the GT-3, but for this I didn't in order to rate the GT-3 on it's own merits) the GT-3 and then run the left/right outs into the effects loop of each amp respectively. As I said, the noise is almost none existant, except a few patches seem to generate a little more than others. The varying noise in patches is similar to the varying output levels of patches even within their own patch bank. This is easily solved through some editing although it can be time consuming to change of bunch of them. Right out of the box this thing can be annoying because of these drastic jumps in output. A minor easily fixed problem though. I have found, unlike many others who have rated this, the distortions to be excellent. Granted, the overdrives and distortions on there own are a little thin, but when combined with the amp simulations you can get some good crunch, hardcore distortion and a really nice fuzz. I even think some of the preset patches have some good distortions. All it takes is a little editing to bring them out. And for you "death metal" fans out there, you CAN get some really swarthy distortion out of this thing--all it takes is a little time to dial it in. I found all of the effects to be very good with one exception--the wah. Basically the wah patches out of the box are terrible. Useable but terrible at the same time. This is by far the weakest point of the GT-3. With some intense editing work and lots of trial and error I have been able to get a pretty solid wah patch, one I can use to play "Bulls on Parade", but I would highly recommend an external wah pedal for all of you wah-heads out there. Being one who doesn't use it that much, it is a minor flaw for me. Plus I am very content with the picking wah progams on the GT-3. The synth sounds on this thing are quite a bit of fun. In my band we like to bust out the occasional 80's cover as a joke(I know, everyone does it) and with the "Strings" synth patch I have got the opening to Europe's "Final Countdown" nailed. They are kind of wacky and a little weird for most music, but hey, I found a use for them! Overall the sound quality is excellent in my mind and this thing would get a ten if you didn't have to fix the output problem and if the wah was even reasonable without major editing.

I have been stomping around on this thing for nine months everyday for at least three hours a day and it hasn't really failed me yet. It's built like a tank--the entire thing is metal, except the pedals which are just as indestructable. The one time it had a glitch it kind of "locked up". All I did was turn it off and then on again(it has an on/off switch unlike the Digitech RP's) and it was fine. The cool thing about this is that when you turn it off it saves your settings and stuff so when you turn it back on the amp bias and regional settings are all the same. You have to cycle back through the patches though, but with this thing it takes like a second. It only happened once and I run this thing all of the time. I gig with it all of the time without backup even though the Carvin's have built in effects if you really want to think about it--I couldn't use them to match anything from the GT-3 though. About as reliable as it gets for as much use as I get out of it!

I haven't dealt with Roland/Boss in relation to the GT-3, but everytime I have had a question about something they have always been knowledgeable and quick to reply. I also use a Roland VG-8 and have had to get help with that before--they were right on the ball. No complaints from me so far. And seeing as how the GT-3 is built like an old Studebaker, I don't think I will be needing to call about any problems anytime soon.

I play anything rock related, from 60's, 70's & 80's to punk to the new rap metal Limp Bizkit/Korn style stuff. For me this box can do it all. I like to play some more mellow bluesy stuff and some jazz-style things every once in a while and the GT-3 handles that with ease too.

I have been playing for five years most of which has been with my band(we all learned to play together from the bottom up to where we are now!) During that time this is one of the better purchases I have made. As I said before, I have a Les Paul Studio and a Yamaha strat with a Roland GK-2 synth pickup installed on it. I run these through a BBE 482, through the GT-3, and then to the two Carvin SX-200's. With the Yamaha and GK pickup, I run that through a Roland VG-8 into a Roland KC-500 amp. With this setup I can basically get any sound I want. For anyone with about $1500 bucks(w/o tax) you can get the BBE 482, GT-3, and two Carvin SX-200's. It's quite a set up and capable of almost anything--I would recommend it to anyone!

If this thing was lost or stolen, first I would hunt down the person who took it and mess them up, but I would sure as heck replace it. It has become an invaluable part of my rig.

For anyone looking for an all-in-one most bang for you buck kind of setup I would highly recommend the GT-3. It is one of the highest quality pieces of gear I have ever seen in this price range. It blows away anything by Digitech as far as I am concerned. It's built tough, has exceptional effects, and has so many options that the possibilities are virtually endless. It's a great buy that I highly recommend to anyone--oh and maybe a wah pedal too, if that's your thing!

Once you read the manual a couple of times, things start to click. I think the more you use it, the more you can come up with. With all of the parameters of all the effects being adjustable and the ability to change the order of effects, not to mention the pre amps sims and o.d.s-there is a lot of shit you can do. I give it an eight though because it took 2 months for me to start to feel comfortable with it.

Prs santana>gt3>(stereo out)marshall stereo chorus 8240 or mono into a fender concert with 4x12 cab. After I sold the marshall and only used this thing with the concert I realized something.-Who needs a amp simulation when you got a good fuckin' amp? If I had the gain up on my amp or just really had the tubes glowing,the gt-3 was over it. It is made to play thru a solid state clean amp like the jc-120(what a coincidence) If you have a bitchin amp, don't get this because you want a lot of effects, it is not like a bunch of floor pedals in one. I like a lot of shit it did, but the harmonist and the octave stuff was just off. And boy was this thing noisy, even with the noise supressor on it would hiss. Wah wah was even worse....

This thing is reliable and I would never think twice about using it anywhere. The only thing that would fuck it up would be a loss of power or a power surge(and then you are fucked anyway because your amp is on fire!)

I have no Idea.

I play dead,phish,funk,jazz,srv,blues kind of stuff, really just play what feels good when it feels good. I have been on the guitar for about 5 years now. I have a bunch of shit but this pedal has to go, for all the frustration it is causing me I can have a bunch of little frustations instead. If you set it up in a stereo effects loop with the 2x2 chorus on, it is very cool, so is the feedbacker, but definitely discolors your guitar and amp sound. I think I spent so much time exploring it possibilities that I played alot less. Thats about it. I suggest that if you are interested you go try one-WITH YOUR OWN AMP AND YOUR OWN GUITAR. A music store will hook you up on a clean shitty amp to show you what it CAN do. I got home and plugged up and saw what is COULNDN'T do. I am no expert and sound is a subjective arena. So try it yourself

Concerning ease of use, I can't say that the GT-3 is "easy" to use. Although not difficult, you will have to read the manual thoroughly the find your way around on the unit. (This is a must.) After one reading I had no problem plugging in and experiencing what the GT-3 can do. And what an experience!!! I'm playing through an Ampeg Reverberocket Combo (reissue). This is a clean sounding tube amp with dual 12" speakers that pump (a loud) 50 watts of sound. The amp alone sounds really good but with the GT-3 plugged in it's down right too much. The sound is really impressive.

The editing patches are swell. You can choose a sound, say...JB-LEAD (Bank 49.4) and customize it to just about any imaginable degree. The effects that make up this patch consist of Delay, Reverb, and a clean overdriven Preamp sound. What's neat about the unit is that you have total control over each individual effect and over the order in which they are driven. Like pedals you can choose which order to drive them.

The manual spells all this out and again, this is a "must read" item. No plug and play here. I found it to be a little on the technical side as far as reading goes but it's not difficult to understand by any means. No problems here.

There is some (meaning a small amount) noise with 3 of the heavily distorted patches, but there realy is no way around that with pedals any way. All the other sounds are relatively quiet. There are six or seven sounds that I won't use. These are weird spaced out sounds that can only be used for sound effects. All of the other setting are fantastic. I've found 22 that I knew immediately I would put to good use for Christian Rock.

I'm using the GT-3, a Kramer Ripley with a Seylmore Duncan 59" humbucker in place of the original pickup, and the Ampeg Reverberocket. I can get some old Van Halen sounds, some Eagles, and some realy nice clean sounds. This unit comes with a wah pedal effect that you can use with the expression pedal. It works but it's the end-all/be-all when it comes to wah wah's. I'd give it a 7. the chourus I'd give an 8. All the other effects get a 9. I found nothing on the GT-3 to be bad. Interesting note though. When plugged into the GT-3 the volume knob on my axe doesn't seem the have much of an effect on controling the volume that when I'm using guitar and amp only.

I've had it for 4 days so I can't comment yet.

I've not needed customer support.

I've been playing for 1 year. I play Christian Contemporary and Christian Rock. i have a TASCAM 4-track that I use for writting. I initialy bought the GT-3 to use as an effects board for recording. I've been having so much fun with it though I haven't done any recording yet. The reason I chose this unit was because I owned a Boss digital delay that was awsome. I went through three delays before buying the Boss DD3 and I was very happy with it. In the past I've played Roland keyboards that sounded pretty good. Originally I intended to buy individual pedals and mount them on a ply-wood board. The cost of doing this would have been nearly $600 for all the effects I wanted. The GT-3 was a great solution for recording and live playing and I didn't have to compromise!

I find this unit very easy to use. It has replaced all my pedals and is the only thing I now use. I plug input/output into an effects loop on my FenderTwin amp. Easy. I keep a clean sound preset to go to in case room acoustics or whatever suddenly makes things wierd. Editing patches during a gig is so very much not an option that I just don't do it. I'm talking about kneeling down, trying to read the LED display in wierd light or daylight, dialing in a minute parameter change with crowd screaming, it's difficult. But I didn't expect to be able to do that when I bought the unit. When you get the unit, do your homework. Put headphones on after each gig in the hotel room and make the changes to your presets that you've been thinking about during the gig. Like, I need that delay to be longer, etc. The manual was fun to read and seemed complete. Although a section on describing the factory presets would be useful. Their little preset names don't mean a whole lot. What's a "Match Lead" really sound like?

I play an Ibanez Custom S-series electric guitar with this unit, through a Fender Twin. It is not a noisy unit, but for some reason, certain presets go haywire when my Fender Twin's internal reverb is on past 5 or so. Like if I have reverb on to 8 and the preset has a compression setting this high squeal emits from the amp. So the unit for whatever reason is driving this lame noise. I can't seem to make it go away. I do use the noise suppressor because on really heavy presets with lots of OD and compression, there's some noise. The delay is very good, the phaser is good, the wah is thin, the synth sounds are unusable by me, the reverb is excellent. I give this section a 7 only because the wah is weak and I haven't found a ballsy distortion sound yet.

It is my sole unit, no backup needed. It's burly, doesn't slide around. I clean it with a rag so the gunk doesn't build up. I played a midday gig last summer and reading the display was so hard I panicked but built a little sun glare shield and that worked.

never needed it.

I play guitar in a 5 piece marimba band, so I need a very clean sound for fast soukous-style picking and trippy stuff for intros and ambient sections also searing distortion for when I break out the slide. The GT-3 lets me do all this. I like to be able to name my own patches, and the effects loop chain feature may be the underappreciated feature here. Simple and reliable.

This is my first unit and I think it is quite easy to use. The manual is very detailed, and the unit itself contains logical diagrams to help you out. The unit has about 85 banks with 4 selectable patches in each bank. You can change bank with up and down pedals and change the patch with pedals 1-4. About 35 banks are programmable. If you own a computer, you can download patches from the internet created by others and send them to your GT-3 using a Midi interface, very simple and cool. The unit also features a CTRL pedal for switching and an expression pedal. The CTRL pedal and expression are fuly programmable with everything you want, so you are not restricted to, e.g., WAH and volume only. Also multiple effects, up till 7 or 9, don't remember exactly, can be assigned to the pedals, which is quite awesome. A disadvantage is that the effects cannot be fully controlled by the large pedals, you have to get down and use your fingers to look for a new sounds. There is a manual mode to turn off/on basic effects with the pedal, but to change the values, you need to get down on your knees. The effects are easy and fast to set up though, a disc can be turned to quickly change the values of the effects.

I use a Ibanez JS100, and that sounds very good . The unit has lots of effects (32), some basic and useful, some less useful, but fun for intro's or special effects. The preamp simulator is very cool and I use it to get my distortions and the best clean sounds. I play a lot with headphones and I don't like the distortion/overdrive effect that much, the preamps sound much better. With an amplifier, the OD/DS sounds good, though. The acoustic simulator is quite nice for background chords. Delay, reverb and chorus are perfect, with lots of options to fine tune. Phaser and flanger are OK. The double harmonizer can shift up 2+ or 2- octaves, sounds cool, but doesn't always know how to handle multiple strings together. The guitar synth is too slow and sounds cheap, but I like to play with it and hold a synth tone as background noise. The wah is quite good, especially for clean sounds, but seperate pedals like the cry baby are better. The problem with the wah is that it changes the sound of your patch a lot. This can be compensated with the two build in equalizers. There are also some less useful effects, but fun for special effects or intro's. These are the ring modulator, auto-riff, slicer. The vibrato doesn't seem to do much. The enormous amount of patches are all of good quality, but I prefer some patches I found on the internet. Overall, you can create a lot of good sounds with the unit, for all kind of musical styles. The ability to change the order of the effect, makes the unit perfect to find an unlimited number of different sounds and experiment forever.

The unit has a metal casing and is very heavy because of that, it doesn't run away when you step on it. The expression pedal is a bit light to use, but very solid.

No experience with it.

Well, it's perfect for me. I've been playing electrical guitar for about a year now, played acoustical guitar for about 9 years. I used to be not that much of an active guitar player, but this device gave me a new spirit. I play almost every day now, preferably late in the evening when it is dark outside :-)